Xianxia is closed in her hand, the door to Fujian is open, and the Ming army's entry into Fujian can be said to be unimpeded, not to mention the sea advantage? At this time, if the Ming army wanted to enter Fujian, it was as easy as entering their own door.

The Ming army was divided into two routes, one from Xianxia Pass to Fujian, and the other directly from the sea. The two Ming armies pointed directly at Fuzhou, preparing to take Fuzhou in one go.

The speed of the sea march was much faster, and the Ming army set sail from Wenzhou on the 12th day of the 6th lunar month, and arrived at the sea around Mawei at the mouth of the Minjiang River in the east of Fuzhou on 16 June. At this time, the Ming army, which set out from the land, set off from Quzhou as early as June 5, and had just passed the Xianxia Pass and entered the territory of Jianning Mansion in Fujian.

The jurisdiction of Jianning Prefecture is most of the area under the jurisdiction of today's Nanping City, under the jurisdiction of Jian'an, Ouning, Jianyang, Chong'an, Pucheng, Zhenghe, Songxi and other counties.

Xianxia Pass has fallen into the hands of the Ming army, the Qing army Jianning defenders are not worth mentioning at all, the Ming army from Xianxia Pass into Fujian, Jianning Qing army has almost no power to parry.

In fact, from Xianxia Pass to Fuzhou, all the way is mountainous and hilly. The ancients said that it was difficult to go to the blue sky. The terrain of Fujian is complex, and the Min Road is no easier to walk than the Shu Road, and fighting in this hilly and mountainous terrain is certainly unfavorable for the attackers, and extremely beneficial to the defenders.

The defenders of Jianning used the valley and the hill to build Tucheng Cottage in an attempt to rely on the favorable terrain to block the Ming army.

However, for the Qiongzhou army, in addition to the difficulty of storming a mountainous fortress such as Xianxia Pass, it was not a problem at all to attack the Qing army that relied on the valley and mountains to build an earthen city.

Xianxia was in hand, and various heavy materials such as artillery of the Ming army could be continuously sent into Fujian. There were artillery openings, and several rounds of artillery bombardment went down, and the Qing army's Tucheng cottage collapsed. Even if it is a hilltop village built on the high ground, there is no need to be afraid, the Ming army's mortars and howitzers fired several rounds, the gate of the cottage was blasted open, and the cottage barracks were smashed to pieces.

The Ming infantry launched an attack, covered with small artillery, musketeers and archers advanced, and the dense fire suppressed the Qing army so that it could not raise its head at all. Then the sword and shield man rushed forward.

The sword and shield man who rushed to the Qing army did not directly swing his knife to slash, but threw two rows of grenades, and after blowing the Qing army to pieces, he rushed up and slashed like chopping melons and vegetables, killing the Jianning Green Battalion Army to the point of losing their armor.

The Ming army arrived at Pucheng County with lightning speed.

The Qing court magistrate in Fujian has not seen the strength of the Ming army, Luo Xiang asked people to shout and ask the Qing court magistrate to surrender Kaicheng, who knows that the magistrate is stubborn and refuses to surrender Kaicheng.

As soon as the time came, the Ming army began to attack the city.

Several rounds of artillery fire blew up the female wall battlements at the head of the city, and the arrow towers at the city gate were blown into ruins. The musketeers and archers then advanced, and the auxiliaries stepped forward to fill in the moat, pushing improvised chariots to ram the gates. The musketeers and archers under the city suppressed, and at a distance they set up small three-pounder cannons to bombard the city.

Under the fierce attack of the Ming army, the defenders of Pucheng County collapsed, and the county magistrate led people to open the door and surrender.

Luo Xiang looked at the Qing court magistrate coldly, as if looking at a dead man: "Only now do you know that you open the door and surrender?" It's late! Push it down, cut it! ”

The two pro-soldiers pushed the struggling and begging magistrate down like chickens, and cut off his head with a knife.

On June 17, in the waters of the Majiang Estuary, Wang Xinyu's flagship.

"Geng Jimao, that kid, runs quite fast! It is said that he went to Zhangzhou to find Li Shutai for help! What to call for help? It's just that he just ran away when he saw the situation! It is estimated that when we reach Zhangzhou, he and Li Shutai will go to Guangdong! Chen Yonghua put the information obtained on Wang Yuyou's table.

Wang Yuyou sneered and said: "Geng Jimao has his ideas, he wants to unite with the armies of Shang Kexi, Fujian and Guangdong. It is estimated that they want to have a decisive battle with us at the junction of Fujian and Guangdong! Hum! That's the best! We still have to waste time eating little by little, they are one, we just swallow it in one bite! ”

What Wang Yuyou said was not a big talk, but the Ming army did have the strength to eat all the Qing troops in Fujian and Guangdong. Today's Ming army is super strong, and the more than 50,000 elite troops can be said to be invincible, sweeping all the way to the past, and there is nothing that can stop the power. Not to mention anything else, if the Qing army is combined, it just gives the Ming army a good opportunity to show its might, and it can take Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao in one pot, and add one Li Shutai to eat.

Wang Xinyu is arranging a landing battle, which will not be too difficult to fight, and the coastline along the southeast coast is so long, it is impossible for the Qing army to send troops to defend every place. For the Ming army, which had water superiority, the Qing army's coastal defense line was full of holes, and offensive positions could be found everywhere.

As for why the Ming army was not in a hurry to land, it was because it had to wait for the main army to come down from the north, and the two armies would join forces to attack Fuzhou together, so that they could break through Fuzhou City in one fell swoop.

Although Geng Jimao took away the main force of his Jingnan Wangfu Han Eight Banners, and even brought the main force of the Eight Banners of Fuzhou Mancheng to Zhangzhou, there were still many green battalion troops left in Fuzhou City, and the main commander of the city was Kong Yuanzhang, and Zu Dashou's son Zu Zepu and Geng Jimao's cronies Zeng Yangxing followed Geng Jimao. At present, there are more than 6,000 people in the Green Battalion Army and local Lianyong in Fuzhou City, plus the Green Battalion Army and local Lianyong who have been driven to Fuzhou by Luo Xiang from Jianning one after another, and finally the total strength of the defenders in Fuzhou City can reach more than 10,000 people.

More than 10,000 green battalions and Lian Yong, plus the Minzhuang that Kong Yuanzhang and the Fuzhou prefect could recruit from Fuzhou, as well as the Minzhuang who came from Jianning and Shaowu, the number of Minzhuang defending the city in the city could reach more than 30,000 people at most. In addition, some of the old and young people left in the city of Fuzhou will also help defend the city.

After all, Fuzhou is a fortified city, and the total strength of the defenders in the city may reach more than 50,000 people, and this battle will not be too easy to fight.

Geng Jimao is still quite smart, he knows that if those places are put in the field, those rabble will not be able to play any role at all, and can only be used as cannon fodder. But putting them in the battle to defend the city, Minzhuang and Lian Yong can also pose a great threat to the Ming army with the help of the city wall.

The Ming warships arrived at the mouth of the Majiang River, and Wang Xinyu took a telescope to observe the situation inside the mouth of the Majiang River.

"In the Majiang estuary, there are more than 3,000 Fujian sailors and more than 100 large and small warships." Wang Yuyou gave a briefing on the situation of the Qing Army's naval division at Majiangkou.

At this time, Wang Xinyu's cutting-edge Western-style warships were all in the Nanyang area, and the Chinese warships fighting along the southeast coast were Dafu, Haicang, Cangshan and Centipede Clippers, but with such strength, they could already ravage the warships of the Fujian Qing Army's naval division.

Wang Xinyu's own flagship was an 800-pound Dafu ship, which was equipped with two 24-pound Hongyi cannons, and there were also eight 2,000-pound Buddha Lang cannons on each side. There were a total of four of these 800 warships. The other main warships were all Daifuku ships of 600 materials and 400 materials, and there were more than 100 Daifuku ships in total. In addition, there are a large number of Haicang ships, Cangshan ships, centipede clippers and small boats, and there are more than 1,000 large and small warships, equipped with more than 2,000 naval guns of all sizes.

As for the situation inside the Majiang Estuary, the agents of the Heaven and Earth Society have already figured out the situation of the waterway clearly, where the river barrage is arranged, and where there are underwater hidden piles, all of which have been drawn on Wang Xinyu's drawings.

More than a dozen small boats slowly rowed into the mouth of the Majiang River, and an officer on the boat shouted: "There is a barrage ahead!" Stop the boat at the front! ”

The boat stopped in front of the barrage, and several sailors who were familiar with the water jumped into the river and dived about three feet deep to find the barrage laid under the water by the Qing army.

To deal with the barrage, if you use an axe to chop, because the barrage is made of a very thick iron chain, plus the resistance in the water is high, the sailor can not hold his breath for too long when diving, so it is difficult to split. To cut the barrage, you can only go ashore and cut it with an axe in the place where the barrage is tied on both sides.

However, Wang Xinyu has his own way of dealing with the barrage: that is, the sailor dives into the water with a mine, ties the mine to the barrage, and immediately ignites the fuse that can burn underwater, and can blow up the barrage in a short time.

The so-called underwater fuse is a layer of waterproof material wrapped around the fuse. The waterproof material is obtained after waterproofing the paper with tung oil and paraffin, and this technology is not a complicated technology, and the Chinese adopted this technology when they built mines during the Wanli period.

But the people on the small boat had not had a chance to blow up the river cable, and Qing warships appeared upstream.

"Here comes the Tartars!" The general shouted.

The Qing warships hid in the inner harbor to prevent the Ming army from destroying the barrage and underwater piles. There are also Qing army batteries in the Majiang estuary, plus the defense of warships, it is not easy for the Ming army to destroy the barrage and underwater hidden piles at the mouth of the river, especially those annoying Qing warships, they do not come out, they hide inside, and the large warships of the Ming army cannot enter, and the small boats will be attacked by the fire of the Qing warships and batteries when they enter.

However, these Ming army boats did not come to blow up the river barrage and underwater hidden piles, but to reconnoiter again.

The small boat found out how far the barrage and the underwater hidden pile were from the Qing army battery, and then spied on how far the Qing warship was from the barrage, and through calculation, sent the information back, so that the upper side could decide how to bombard the Qing army battery with a large ship and cover the boat to enter the Majiang estuary to pull out the barrage and underwater hidden pile.

"Let's go!" The general shouted.

The sailors on the small boat of the Ming army rowed their oars quickly, and the slender boat left the position of the barrage and sailed towards the open sea.

The Qing ships that were going down the river opened fire, and the Qing troops in the batteries on both sides of the river were also ready, and rows of cannonballs roared and smashed into the river, raising white columns of rushing water.

However, the small boat target was small and extremely fast, and the Qing army's artillery bombardment was just a waste of shells.

"Minggou, don't run away!" The Qing warships behind made a provocative cry.

"Minggou, come on, come and fight with grandpa!" Someone on the Qing warship shouted and cursed.

The people on the small boat of the Ming army also replied: "If there is a kind of fake tartar, it will come out!" Fight with grandpa in the open sea! Hiding inside, relying on the protection of the fort, are you still considered a sailor? ”

Naturally, the warships of the Qing army did not dare to chase them to the open sea, but they only shouted and cursed behind the barrage for a while, and then turned around and returned to the inner harbor.

"Fake Tartar! If they dare to come out and go to the open sea, see if Lao Tzu doesn't break them into pieces, Lao Tzu's surname will be written upside down! The Ming army general scolded indignantly.

With his own small boat, can he smash the Qing warship to pieces? Several soldiers looked at the general in amazement.

"My lord, what is your surname?" One of the soldiers asked jokingly.

"Lao Tzu's surname is Wang!" Put the total back.

"Hahaha!" The sailors of the Ming army on the boat all laughed.

Someone said: "Fortunately, it's not surnamed Tian, otherwise it's okay to write horizontally." ”

Jokes aside, since the reaction of the Qing army has been tested, the next thing to do is how to destroy the barrage and underwater piles, as well as the artillery batteries of the Qing army.

Wang Xinyu formulated a battle plan: the small boat carrying the mine was in front, the large warship behind followed, concentrated the firepower of the battleship to bombard the Qing army battery, and the small boat went to blow up the barrage, and then the big boat immediately followed the small boat in. If the Qing warship came out, the big ship would bombard the Qing warship and cover the small boat to blast all the way in.

After nightfall, when the tide changed and the tide began to rise, the Ming army began to move.

On the night of 17 June, there was a moon in the sky, and the Qing army batteries on the shore could be seen on the sea, but on the shore, it was not easy to see the warships on the water.

The small boats of the Ming army were in front and the big ships were behind, taking advantage of the tide and sailing towards the mouth of the Majiang River.

"Fire!" Wang Xinyu on the flagship gave an order.

The Ming army's various Dafu ships, Haicang ships and Cangshan boats spit out tongues of fire, and the overwhelming shells smashed into the Qing army batteries on the shore. Many of these shells were flowering shells, which landed on the battery and exploded into fireballs.

"Minggou is here!" The Qing garrison on the battery shouted.

The Qing gunners rushed to the gun position, activated their artillery, and fired shells at the Ming warships that were spewing fire on the river.

The two sides went back and forth, and engaged in fierce artillery battles with each other. Although the Qing army battery was condescending and had strong fortifications, the Ming army had a huge number of warships and advanced artillery, and after a few rounds of artillery bombardment, the Qing army battery was hit with heavy casualties, and many artillery positions were hit, and the smashed cannons flew up. Some powder kegs were hit by shells, causing violent explosions and blood and flesh flying on the Qing batteries.

During the artillery battle, there were also warships of the Ming army that were hit by shells, causing certain casualties. However, because it was dark, the shooting accuracy on the Qing battery's batteries was very poor, and the losses of the Ming warships were not large, and the large ships were injured and not sunk. However, several small boats were accidentally hit by Qing batteries and sank into the river.

Upstream, the Qing warships also went downstream, and with the help of the fire cover of the batteries, they opened fire on the Ming warships downstream.

In the dark, the Ming army could not see the specific location of the Qing warship clearly, and could only rely on the fire fired by the opponent's artillery to send shells to the Qing warship. (To be continued.) )